Clues About Doom

id Software has redesigned their website for the first time in years and years, and with the spiffy new look come some new clues, and new questions, about what the legendary game company has in store for us with Doom 3.

id Software is, and always has been, notoriously tight-lipped about their games and their affairs. When John Carmack announced the existence of a new Doom game almost two years ago, it was done not as part of a media blitz, or even a press release; the news was given in a humble .plan file, and was revealed as an almost off-the-cuff remark, made in relation to the termination of an id employee.

Amazingly, since that announcement in early June of 2000, id Software has in fact not publically released a single piece of media -- not a single video or screenshot -- about their new Doom game. John Carmack's now-famous Macworld presentation in February 2001 was made with no specific mention of what game it represented, and the few blurred screenshots revealed from Quakecon 2001 were released against id Software's explicit warnings to the contrary. The placeholder webpage for some as-of-yet unknown facet of the game was found merely by chance.

With this in mind, it's almost expected that any new information regarding id Software's latest game will be revealed not through traditional media sources, but through slips of the tongue, reading between the lines, or plain exploration.

First stop on our tour of the revamped id website is the new History section. Last time this page was updated, Quake 2 was brand new -- but now there's a little blurb on the new Doom game, as well.

id Software is currently hard at work creating the next chapter in the DOOM legacy, building a new adventure based on the storyline of the original masterwork. Featuring a new, mind-blowing gaming engine from John Carmack, the closely guarded, un-named project is in development, and in true id fashion, will be released "when it's done."

These comments fall in line with previous clues that hint that the new Doom game will be a remake of the original Doom, but of course, everything is speculative until id releases official information.

Next we head over to the
id Team page, where we find several individuals who have not been linked with id before:

Andy Chang - Artist

Steve Rescoe - Designer

Matt Hooper - Designer

Pat Duffy - Media Artist

Thanks to Zaldron on the Doomworld forums, here's a little background on these newcomers:

Andy Chang: Worked as a texture artist on Third Law's KISS: Psycho Circus.

Steven Rescoe: Was a famous Quake 1 mapper who was snagged by ION Storm to work on Anachronox.

Matt Hooper: Worked for Third Law Interactive, Monolith and Tremor, Ritual Entertainment, and ION Storm as a level designer. Worked in Daikatana and before that on Ritual's Quake 1 mission pack, Scourge of Armagon.

Pat Duffy: Was (is?) a member of the Radiant web staff -- probably responsible for the redesign.

Does the id Software website hold any more secrets about the new Doom game? There's only one way to find out -- check it out and poke around for yourself. Hopefully E3 will bring with it some solid information about the new Doom. A person can only stand so much suspense.

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I personally discovered that tiny piece of text quoted from the history section of id's redesigned website regarding DOOM's storyline to be of particular interest, very much like Linguica probably did as he highlighted it in the above article, and the reason why I think of it in such a way is that I would find it quite satisfactory if the new DOOM game featured everything that was subtly intimated in the original storyline but didn't make it into the game's technology and design, elements such as a deeper look into the background of the UAC and the events that take place on Phobos and Deimos before hell invades the bases, darker and moodier levels (the original DOOM was dark and moody, but in a different way), more logically explained and visualized tasks for the doomguy to pull off in order to get out alive, and also to be mentioned, more comprehensively pictured UAC technology - including everything between teleportation and nukage reprocessing - and OF COURSE, more vividly portrayed hellspawn and their peculiarities.

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God I'll be happy when the damn game finally comes out, just so I can stop biting my tongue.... Shit if I'd have known it would take this long I'd have waited for a year and a half to take the tour. :)

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God I'll be happy when the damn game finally comes out, just so I can stop biting my tongue.... Shit if I'd have known it would take this long I'd have waited for a year and a half to take the tour. :)

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God I'll be happy when the damn game finally comes out, just so I can stop biting my tongue.... Shit if I'd have known it would take this long I'd have waited for a year and a half to take the tour. :)

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yes he visited iD software and they gave him a nice preview of doom3 and some gifts. He swore not to tell anyone what he saw, although I can't say he kept that promise. Man I missed that damn thread he made to take shit, and when I came back it was edited. Just my damn luck. =\

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There's a link to an article about my trip, a bunch of pictures. Heh, for one brief shining moment people knew who I was. LOL

Considering that what I saw was seriously amazing, and it's been more than a year since then, they proabably have some unbelievably cool stuff. The lighting alone is gonna blow people away. You know, if they ever release it...

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Well with names like "Village" and "Shadow", it's no wonder I didn't remember them by their names. I ran about 10 feet into each of those maps and remember very well that I played both of them back in 96/97 somehow. The rest of them I hadn't played.

Well of course, Doom was originally supposed to have been titled:
DOOM: Evil Unleashed
;-)

Heh, and Rellik: You had better not reveal anything in detail on what you saw or I'll strangle the life outta ya myself - I don't want any surprises ruined before the game's lying on my hard drive safe and sound.
Of course, I'm confident that you wouldn't want to get your arse sued off by id, so I wouldn't worry ;-)